File Photo of Matzie in the WBVP Studio

AMBRIDGE, Jan. 10 – New funding of $50,000 approved for the Beaver County-based Crop and Kettle will allow the nonprofit to expand resources for urban agriculture training, state Rep. Rob Matzie, D-Beaver, announced today.

 Matzie said the funding awarded under the 2022-23 PA Farm Bill Urban Agriculture Grant program can help provide residents a path to productive jobs.

 “Beyond fighting food insecurity, urban agriculture can open doors to jobs,” Matzie said. “The funding awarded today will expand resources for Crop and Kettle so this community nonprofit organization can continue providing the training and social development skills that help residents overcome employment barriers.”

FILE – Container cranes at a port in New Jersey appear behind the Statue of Liberty, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, in New York. The global economy will come “perilously close” to a recession this year, led by weaker growth in all the world’s top economies — the United States, Europe and China — the World Bank warned Tuesday.(AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The World Bank warns the global economy will come “perilously close” to a recession this year, led by weaker growth in the world’s top economies — the United States, Europe and China. The World Bank lends money to poorer countries for development projects. The bank said Tuesday it had slashed its forecast for global growth this year by nearly half, to just 1.7%, from its previous projection of 3%. Though the U.S. might avoid a recession this year, the World Bank predicts global weakness will pose another headwind for America’s businesses and consumers, on top of high prices and more expensive borrowing rates.

FILE – A man walks by a formerly sunken boat standing upright into the air with its stern buried in the mud along the shoreline of Lake Mead amid a drought at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Boulder City, Nev., June 22, 2022. Costly weather disasters kept raining down on America last year, pounding the nation with 18 climate extremes that caused at least $1 billion in damage each, totaling more than $165 billion, federal climate scientists calculated Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

DENVER (AP) — America’s onslaught of mega costly weather disasters remains stuck in high gear. Federal climate scientists on Tuesday say that 2022 had 18 climate extremes that caused at least $1 billion in damage, costing more than $165 billion in damage. This is part of a big jump in US billion dollar disasters has been going on since 2016. Meteorologists say 2022 was a wild year even though it wasn’t too unusually hot of a year for the United States. It was merely the 18th warmest on record for the US. Scientists say climate change is supercharging weather extremes.

FILE – Kendrick Lamar performs at the Glastonbury Festival in Worthy Farm, Somerset, England, on June 26, 2022. Lamar, Foo Fighters and ODESZA will headline the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in June 2023 in Tennessee. The Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper last headlined Bonnaroo in 2015 and released his new album “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” last year. (AP Photo/Scott Garfitt, File)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Kendrick Lamar, Foo Fighters and ODESZA will headline the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival this June in Tennessee. The Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper last headlined Bonnaroo in 2015 and released his new album “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” last year. The Foo Fighters are returning to touring in 2023 after the sudden death of drummer Taylor Hawkins last March. The rock band was supposed to headline Bonnaroo in 2021, but the festival was canceled because of flooding. Other acts performing at the festival include Paramore, Lil Nas X, Baby Keem, Tyler Childers, Vulfpeck, Marcus Mumford and My Morning Jacket.

FILE – Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio wears a hat that says The War Boys during a rally in Portland, Ore., on Sept. 26, 2020. The seditious conspiracy trial of Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants is coming at a pivotal time for Justice Department’s investigation and prosecution of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. (AP Photo/Allison Dinner, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A jury has been chosen for the seditious conspiracy trial of former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four other members of the far-right extremist group. The defendants are charged with conspiring to stop the transfer of presidential power by attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Jurors are expected to hear attorneys’ opening statements in Washington’s federal court on Wednesday. In November, a jury convicted two leaders of another extremist group, the Oath Keepers, of seditious conspiracy. Tarrio was the Proud Boys’ national chairman when a mob disrupted Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory over then-President Donald Trump. The Proud Boys members on trial are from Florida, Washington state, Pennsylvania and New York.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Calif., gestures towards the newly installed nameplate at his office after he was sworn in as speaker of the 118th Congress in Washington, early Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/ Matt Rourke)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Kevin McCarthy is the new House speaker, but it took days and days, and 15 roll call votes, ending early Saturday. But as bruising as it was for McCarthy, his struggle to secure the job may be a prelude to the chaos ahead. To win over his detractors, McCarthy had to agree to relinquish some of the very powers he’ll need to lead, and the deal means giving colleagues the ability to oust him as speaker with a vote. So in that regard, McCarthy emerges a weakened leader who might not be able to do much in the job or even keep it. But he’s also a survivor who’s seen as emboldened by his victory.

FILE – Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin (3) leaves the field after an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022, in Foxborough, Mass. Hamlin was in critical condition early Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023, after the Bills say his heart stopped following a tackle during the Monday Night Football game, which was indefinitely postponed. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper, File)

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Doctors who treated Damar Hamlin say the Bills safety was moved to a hospital in Buffalo to continue his recovery. It’s an uplifting sign of the remarkable progress Hamlin has made a week after going into cardiac arrest and having to be resuscitated on the field during a game in Cincinnati. Hamlin was discharged from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in the morning and flown to Buffalo, where Dr. William Knight said he was “doing well.” Hamlin’s return comes a day after he cheered on the Bills from his hospital bed during their 35-23 win over the New England Patriots. The game proved to be a cathartic outpouring of support for the Bills and Hamlin.

This undated photo shows former West Virginia Public Broadcasting reporter Amelia Ferrell Knisely. Knisely was let go from her job at WVPB on Dec. 20, 2022, after she wrote about the alleged abuse of people with disabilities at the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services. (Amelia Ferrell Knisely via AP)

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia journalist lost her job after she reported about alleged abuse of people with disabilities in state care. Amelia Ferrell Knisely, a reporter at West Virginia Public Broadcasting, said she was told to stop reporting on the Department of Health and Human Resources after agency leaders “threatened to discredit” the publicly-funded television and radio network. She later learned her part-time position was being eliminated. Knisely said her news director told her the order came from WVPB Executive Director Butch Antolini, former communications director for Republican Gov. Jim Justice. Antolini declined to comment, but other officials denied any effort to influence coverage.